It feels very much at the moment that everything in the UK is 'up in the air' I watched in horror as tottenham burned, praying that my block of flats would still be standing when I returned home from my holiday in Scotland. Thankfully this was the case but I am sure that I am not the only brit who was transfixed by the images rolling 24 hours on our television screens. What a mess!!! I was so impressed however by the amazing spirit of Londoners who donned marigold's grabed a broom and headed out to clean up the aftermath, very very impressed.

A long long time ago when I was a student at KCL and frequented various drinking holes around London I came across a very talented young singer in a pub in Camden. Her mate was doing a gig and she jumped up and did a few accoustic numbers with his guitar. I spoke (...gushed) to her afterwards and she was shy, gracious and humble. She looked great. When I flicked over the channel to 'Later with Jools Holland' and saw her performing 'Stronger than me' about a year later I was not surprised that people were beginning to notice her unique talent. She looked great. I went out the next day and bought her debut albumn 'Frank' It is to this day one of my favourites. My admiration was solidified when I saw her performing in an adidas dress at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. Her voice was amazing, her presence undeniable and, yes, she looked great, even in sportwear. Of course my formative experiences of Amy Winehouse were completely at odds with the pictures splashed all over the press follwing the success of her second albumn 'Back to Black'. And I am talking about before the drugs. I couldn't believe how thin she had become. She looked positively ILL it was horrific.

Now it is certainly true that when you have a hammer everything looks like a nail but the tell tale signs of bulimia were written all over her face. I remember thinking at the time that I hoped she would sort it out as bulimia ravages your vocal chords, infact, if you listen to the vocal difference between the two albums you can hear it. When pictures of her disasterous last performance earlier this year were greeted with protestaions of her recovery from drug addication I remeber thinking that while that may be true she was still far too thin. She may have beaten that demon but by the looks of it her ED still had a very strong grip. In the media following her death hardly anything has been made of this? Is it just a given now that people in the industry have eating disorders? Why are we outraged that she was a heroin addict and completely accepting of the fact that she was so obviously struggling with bulimia, something that she openly admitted.

So if she had kicked the drugs and the drink what was really behind her death? Amy's body was abused but we are asked to believe she was recovering. Recovering from what exactly? I can't help wondering if perhaps, had she managed to gain some weight and handle the most longstanding issue, the Eating Disorder, that recovery would have been a success.